Vietnam-based real estate technology platform Citics has secured US$2.1 million in a funding round.

The investment included contributions from new investors TVS and Ai Viet Ventures, as well as existing backers Vulpes Ventures and Vietnam Investments Group (VIG).

This funding arrives amid challenges in Vietnam’s startup ecosystem, particularly in the property technology sector, where investor interest has declined.

Citics aims to digitize the real estate transaction process, focusing on valuation, mortgage lending, and property transactions.

Founded in 2018, Citics developed Vietnam’s first automated valuation model (AVM), which is utilized by over 32 banks nationwide.

🔗 Source: Citics

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Vietnam’s proptech sector defies market headwinds with data-driven models

Citics’ funding success comes amid significant challenges in Vietnam’s broader proptech landscape, where many competitors have downsized or exited entirely.

The company’s focus on data infrastructure, digitizing 33 million properties across 38 provinces, represents the largest structured real estate dataset in Vietnam, creating a competitive advantage in the increasingly digital market.

This approach aligns with broader industry trends, as proptech startups across Southeast Asia are leveraging big data and AI to transform traditionally opaque real estate transactions, with companies like Baania in Thailand using similar technologies to provide market insights 1.

Vietnam’s proptech sector has already grown to include over 140 startups focused on various aspects of real estate, from marketing to management, with the market anticipated to reach USD 1.23 trillion by 2030, representing 22% of the economy’s total assets 2.

The COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst for proptech adoption in Vietnam, as it did across the region, creating opportunities for companies with digital-first business models despite the broader real estate market challenges.

2️⃣ Market constraints create opportunities for technology-enabled solutions

Vietnam’s real estate market faces significant supply challenges, with only 52 commercial housing projects completed in 2023, delivering approximately 16,000 units and causing a 40% drop in available apartment inventory 3.

This supply crunch, combined with rapidly rising property prices—which have increased by 50-72% in major cities over five years while average incomes grew by only 6-10% 4—creates a fragmented and challenging market for traditional transactions.